Horror Actressing: Jessica Lange in "Cape Fear"

by Jason Adams

It was said that the director Ken Russell helped the actor Oliver Reed modulate his performances with a scale ranging from "Moody One" to "Moody Two." And while I am in no way insinuating that the actress Jessica Lange has in any way that sort of limited range -- step off, Lange-anistas, I love her too! -- it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to gauge her work on a sliding scale of how much hand fluttering each role involves. And using that system Cape Fear comes out, blissfully, near the top.

Normally if I was feeling inclined to talk about the terrific actressing going on in Martin Scorsese's hot-brained 1991 remake I'd make a bee-line straight for the (rightfully) Oscar-nominated Juliette Lewis, who's the best in show over every single one of her far older and more experienced co-stars...

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18 days till Oscar

by Nathaniel R

18 is today's magic number. Everyone knows that Oscar's acting branch sometimes takes a shine to little kids for acting nominations (almost always it requires a Best Picture nomination for the movie that houses them) but how often do they nominate kids who've just become adults? Not too often! There have only been three 18 year olds who've ever been nominated* and curiously none were in Best Picture nominees. Still, all of them gave unforgettable performances and the latter two could have easily be argued as "shoulda wons" in their year. They are...

•  Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan (1979), Best Supporting Actress
•  River Phoenix in Running on Empty (1988), Best "Supporting" Actor 
•  Juliette Lews in Cape Fear (1991), Best Supporting Actress

Fact: No 18 year-olds have ever been nominated in either lead acting category.

* It's possible we missed an 18 year old in Supporting Actress (though we could only think of 19 and 20 year olds like Angela Lansbury and Saoirse Ronan beyond the 16 and under famous inclusions) since it's the category that is most favourable to teenage nominees and most trivia and articles list don't go beyond age 15 or 16 in that category. If we did we trust you'll tell us who in the comments. 

Links+ Hot, Lukewarm, Cold

Oooh look at this beautiful actress roundtable cover for The Hollywood Reporter. Can't wait to see the full video.

Okay on to the link roundup since we haven't done this in some time the news is a mix of brand new to 'oops, already shoulda shared that!'

 Piping Hot 

/Film early numbers on the success of Disney+ though you'll have to take it with a grain of salt as the numbers are provided solely by Disney (just like Netflix who is free to brag on the rare occassions when they do share numbers but there's no way to know if the numbers are accurate)

Coming Soon Juliette Lewis and Mia Goth are co-starring in a female action flick called Mayday

After the jump The Little Mermaid, new projects for Paul Thomas Anderson and Damien Chazelle, Kristen Bell singing, and much much more... 

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Review: Octavia Spencer lets loose with "Ma"

by Sean Donovan

In an age where critics praise a generation of thoughtful, innovative, and dazzlingly styled horror films, a deceptively basic package like Ma --unconcerned with winning good reviews, elevating the genre, or acquiring a fancy boutique label like A24 -- is uniquely refreshing. Ma’s jump scares are familiar, its plotting is predictably iffy, its logic and emotional contexts for its supporting characters even more so- but goddamn it, it’s fun.

The ‘fun’ comes from feeding off the joy of Octavia Spencer inhabiting domestic horror-thriller, Hand That Rocks the Cradle realness. No longer is Spencer smiling on a gilded stage, frozen while Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga accept prizes for socially regressive trash to which she’s somehow attached. Octavia’s back baby, and this time she’s got hell to raise and teens to terrify....

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"What's Eating Gilbert Grape" - Still Wonderful!

Here's Eric Blume to celebrate the 25th anniversary of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, currently available for rental on most services...

It's now been a quarter century since the release of Lasse Hallstrom’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. That deeply felt family drama earns its tears not through sentimentality but through true sentiment.  It’s arguably Hallstrom’s best film, and likely the best performances Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio have ever given. I'm happy to report, after a recent revisit, that it only looks better with age.

Hallström lays out the canvas of these characters’ lives with none of the condescension or cliché that we often see in films about small-town America, and he keeps everything fizzy and surprising...

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